The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.
Certain semiconductor devices, such as photovoltaic cells, are composed of a metal component, such as one or more electrodes, which is in contact with a semiconductor component. Typically a metal-to-semiconductor interface will form a high resistance contact interface such as Schottky barrier, which is an undesirable interface for applications such as a photovoltaic cell or other semiconductor devices.
One approach for reducing contact resistivity is to increase impurities at the contact interface by performing doping processes, such as ion implantation, heat treatment, or other diffusion methods, or by performing chemical etching. These processes are costly and normally require the use of toxic materials and expensive equipment.